In a wide variety of industries, from law firms to medical offices to even the restaurant business, storing hard copies of records has long been an important but...slightly inconvenient aspect of doing business. Receipts for large purchases need to be kept, sensitive documents and information need to be stored safely, and in many cases you may be required to keep a document around for a specified length of time depending on what it is. While plenty of hard copy record storage options exist (and I do mean paper documents, not vinyl records - sorry, music fans!) many companies are considering switching over to electronic or cloud storage. Before you make that switch yourself, here’s a few things to consider:
Electronic Storage May Not Be As Safe
Despite its convenience, digital and/or cloud storage of sensitive or important documents may not be as secure or durable as hard copies. Cloud services may not be available 24/7 and are prone to network outages and hard drive failures just like any computer is. Digital storage might not also provide the sort of confidentiality or security you require - medical records, for example, can be more easily accessed online than if the only copy is kept on site. Even if you decide to go with ‘nearline’ services, like tape drives, those are prone to eventual wear and breakdown, which might prevent you from making a second backup before the data is unretrievable.
Industry Regulations May Prevent Digital Backups
In some of the more regulated industries such as law, finance, and medicine, there may be state and federal laws governing how records are stored in maintained, especially in regards to taking a physical (or “wet”) signature as opposed to a digital signature. The legal requirement for hard copies may prevent you from ever going fully digital if your business is regulated in this way.
Digital Copies May Be Too Expensive
If you have a pretty well-established business or warehouse that has been storing physical documents for a long time, getting those documents scanned and saved may simply be too prohibitively expensive. Even if your business has switched to digital storage going forward, those old documents have to be kept somewhere, and at that point you may want to consider looking into some new hard copy record storage options to keep your documents safe and secure.
No matter what you do or where you work, everyone has to fill out paperwork sometimes - and it has to go somewhere, right? Hopefully, our handy tips and info will help you make a better informed decision when it comes time to store your records!